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Saturday, 4 June 2011

Awesome!

Well despite the NE wind blowing in at 9 knots and the full on rock and roll conditions at the surface, we managed to get in and had one of the best dives of the year so far. I don't actually know what made it for me, whether it was the abundance of marine life, the girls dancing round and singing at full volume after the Angler fish siting, or Elaine going totally commando under her dry suit after getting all moist after the first dive!

Her stripping antics in the car park made grown men weep and the young men call the police............

Calm in the harbour, like a washing machine outside

Skellies being the first port of call this morning and second splash on Black Carr with a consitent 10 degrees in the water all day. Almost straight away came across a very nice Angler fish, sitting happy as you like in one of the sandy gullies before it decided to go for a little swim with us.

Elaine gives chase

A happy Angler fish

We also had the added bonus of being buzzed by Guillemots during most of the dive. A bit disconcerting, especially at 22 metres! They move so fast, it's incredible. I'd post a decent picture is I had one but they move quicker than a whippet with a bum full of dynamite!

A Guillemot arse zipping by at 22 metres!

Nudibranchs were also out in force again this weekend, including this whopper which clocked in at just over 8 inches. They breed them big in Scotland!

Nudibranch - on steroids. Look carefully at bottom left to see a regular sized Nudibranch!

Monsterous edible crabs and lobsters also made regular appearances along with what appeared to be a record number of Scorpion fish. They must be breeding like rabbits down there! It goes without saying though that Mabs was on superb performance, spotting anything that moved, and lots of things that didn't (keep practising the hand signal for Wolfish dear!).

Mabs; Spotting like an absolute champion today

Extra special mention to the ignorant buggers who sat around on the boat in the harbour for 25 minutes drinking tea, before they decided to actually dekit and let us on for our second dive. World class muppets. On the plus side though, a couple of them were a particulary excellent shade of green due to the sea state so it all balances out. These Midlands inland lake divers.........